In many electrical systems, it is necessary to protect parts of the system or the entire system against electrical overload. For this purpose, for example, fuses are used in many forms in low voltage systems. Such fuses have characteristic I2t curves, as shown in FIG. 1, or time-current characteristic curves, as shown in FIG. 2, including a continuous curve. From the characteristic curves, it is apparent that the cutoff current or its level is not actually responsible for the cutoff of the fuse, but instead is due to a power supplied during a defined period of time.